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Archived Newsletter |
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July 2004
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WHITE MOUNTAIN After about a week of "June Gloom," it was good to see the sun again. We picked it up as we were heading down I-15 towards Hesperia to our meeting location. Tom Pastore and guest Mark Miller followed Pat and I (yes, she actually went on the run) out, which was good, since I knew that way I knew about 1/2 of the vehicles that had confirmed would be there. After gassing up, we met at Carl's, and within a few minutes, Jon and Dale Rice showed up, shortly thereafter Anna Lobaugh arrived with her "navigator," a cute 5 month old Chow puppy. Okay, now the only rig left was the Jiminezes. We waited around until about 9:30, and since we didn't hear from them we took off; two female drivers and three men; 4 TJs and one Cherokee. We headed out Main Street and made the turn on to Rock Springs Road, to Roundup and the dirt, and what was to be several miles of washboard road. We made a right on Bowen Ranch Road and soon aired down to try and take a little of the rattle factor off the washboard road. We followed Bowen Ranch Road (3N14) until we hit 4N16, made a left and headed towards White Mountain. We hit the junction of 3N17, and after a 10-100 we hit the trail and started the climb. This climb is pretty rocky, rocks of all sizes, mostly smaller than a softball. I think after a while Dale was wishing she was back on the washboard road. We make it to the overlook without any problems (like we ever have problems anymore!). After enjoying the view of the Lucerne valley and the Lucerne and Soggy dry lakes, we headed onward up the hill. Here we started to see a lot more wildflowers. There was one large patch that was the best I've seen in several years! The Matulas would have loved it! While driving, we had a deer bound across the road in front of us. Jay Anderson would have said, "The things you see when you don't have your gun!" We made Big Pine Campground at about 11:45, time for lunch. Over lunch, Anna invited us to visit their new cabin at Green Valley, so I decided to modify the rest of the run to put us out at Green Valley instead of Big Bear Lake, as planned. I was going to pick up 3N08 by the beaver pond, but decided to end up there instead. So, after lunch we headed down 3N16 in search of 3N08. At one point, I had to stop to get my bearing and Ton discovered that his right rear tire was a bit low. so Mark pulled out his compressor and refilled it. While they were doing that, I determined that I had to pick up 3N89 and it would take us to 3N08. So, after Tom got the tire filled, we backtracked for about 1/2 mile and picked up 3N89 and then 3N08. Before long, we were near 3N14, near the beaver ponds (3N93). I thought a little look-see on what the climb out of the creek looked like. I found that it had worn down quite a bit and wasn't as challenging as it once was. Since it was only about 2:30ish, we decided to take more dirt towards Green Valley and stay off the black stuff, so we hit 2N13 with a little side trop up to the Butler Peak fire lookout. To me, it's quite the site to see the lookout perched on top of that big mass of rocks! Tom and Mark had never been there, so they went to the top while the rest of us BS'd. We continued on 2N13 and hit the Green Valley General Store and ice cream about 3:45. After ice cream, we were headed to Anna's cabin. Tom and Mark decided to head for home instead, so the three of headed to the cabin. I'll tell you what, it's a good thing Anna lead us out when we left because if she hadn't, we'd probably be wondering around trying to find our way out! Anyway, we had a good visit, checking out the "new" cabin. Very nice! After using their home air compressor to fill up the tires of the three Jeeps, we headed for home. Since we were so close, the Rice's decided to drip by the Anderson's cabin, so we said our byes.
MOAB 2 I left you last month with the Colorado gang enjoying Pritchett Canyon. We were headed for a day of sightseeing in the beautiful MOAB countryside. Jon and I decided to spend a couple of hours at Arches National Park. A few hours turned into all day. We even went on a two-hour hike, uphill both ways. the rock formations are fantastic. Each turn in the road offers new panoramas. I found a 4x4 trail that goes out of the park. We traveled this moderate trail alone until about 3:00pm. With a very long, steep rocky hill ahead of us, we decided it was time to head back. Six slow miles later, we were back in the park. On our way back to camp, we stopped to say our goodbyes to a great group of young people from Colorado. A group we affectionately call the Colorado gang. Oh yes, Pritchett Canyon was a fun-filled day, even though several repairs were required. Tuesday, we found ourselves enjoying a drive along the Colorado River. We made several stops to watch the river rafters and kayaks play on the river. It was not surprising to pass two very nice dude ranches. However, the winery was unexpected. That afternoon we drove back to welcome Jay, Laurie and Kevin Anderson to MOAB. Wednesday was scheduled for Fins & Things - a challenging trail with many steep fins to climb and then descend. Of course, there are also "things." Things like deep sand, rocky hills and ledges to crawl over. Twenty plus rigs met up for this run. Trail leaders Guy and Lynda Brown held the drivers meeting and off we went. The sandstone has good traction unless it rains. Hence the name, you guessed it, slick rock. No one onted rain but we got it anyway. It rained off and on all day. Oh well. Kenny's climb proved a bit of a challenge for me. If it just hadn't rained! A couple of attempts, just to back down and try again. Okay, enough of this. I backed down a little further, gave it a little more throttle and headed straight for my spotter. I hope he gets out of the way - and up I came. Now Jay, that's another story. No problem for him. A Cherokee came up behind us. Or should I say tried to come up. He kept trying by spinning his tires. Big mistake! He started to slide sideways. Stop! Stop! Stop if you can! Finally, at about a 45 degree angle, he came to a stop. Jay turned around to assist with his winch. The red Rock 4 Wheelers hooked up the winch to the Cherokee. Jon maneuvered in front of Jay and put a strap between us. I got in and tightened the strap to act as an anchor for Jay. Thought I'd better stay there in case we needed to start up the Jeep. I could feel the tug as Jay's brand new winch was used to pull the Cherokee up. Way to go Jay, our latest FITS hero. Finally, everyone was on top. Now the rain quit! The view was beautiful with new little waterfalls from the recent rain. We were off the trail by 3:00, giving Kevin a chance to spend a little time in the pool. We met that evening at Bucks, a restaurant on the north end of town We toasted our hero, reminisced about the day and enjoyed a great dinner. Now a good night's sleep and we'll do it all again tomorrow on Hell's Revenge. To be continued……… next month.
CA4WDC MAPPING PROJECT CA4WDC has taken on the project of mapping ALL trails on BLM land. This to insure that ALL trails are inventoried and not "lost" and closed by the BLM. To do our part, we have been assigned the area covered by page 84 of the Southern & Central DeLorme. This area is roughly from Amboy on the south to the Kelso dunes on the north, and Ludlow on the west and Kelbaker Road on the east. About a 3 hour drive from here. This is going to be a big task so I would like to have as many volunteers as possible. Needless to say the mapping won’t start until the weather cools down some. I’ll report more information as it becomes available.
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